September 16, 1999

Hurricane Aims at Coast of Carolinas

By DAVID FIRESTONE

CHARLESTON, S.C. --
Having already caused the greatest
evacuation in United States history,
Hurricane Floyd skirted Florida and
Georgia on Wednesday and aimed itself directly at the low-lying coastal border
of the Carolinas, where its eye was
expected to come ashore early
Thursday.

Although no widespread damage
from hurricane-force winds or waves
had been reported on the East Coast,
gusts up to 79 miles an hour began
knocking down power lines and blowing billboards across roadways this
evening along the South Carolina
coast. The sustained winds of more
than 40 m.p.h. began felling trees and
smashing windows and roofs at several houses northeast of Charleston,
the police said.

The storm's sustained wind
slowed, though, to 115 m.p.h. tonight
from a top speed of 155 m.p.h. on
Tuesday.

At least 200,000 residents were
without power in the Charleston region, and repair crews had no plans
to begin work until the storm passed.
But for the most part, the homes of
those residents were empty, as were
all others in dozens of counties from
Jacksonville, Fla., to Wilmington,
N.C. Evacuation orders were in effect today for 2.6 million people, and
with a majority of those residents
obeying the orders, Federal officials
said the evacuation had become the
nation's largest ever.

Officials in the New York metropolitan area began preparing for
high winds and as much as eight
inches of rain through midday on
Friday. On Long Island, officials
urged the residents of Fire Island to
evacuate. And in New Jersey, Gov.
Christine Todd Whitman declared a
state of emergency in anticipation of
the approaching storm.

In the Bahamas, where the storm
struck on Tuesday, officials began
assessing the widespread damage.
But the worst-hit islands were still
out of contact. One man on Grand
Bahama Island was reported killed
when his car was swept into the
ocean.

About 65 percent of Charleston's
87,000 residents had moved inland,
and Charleston County officials were
amazed to report an 80 percent evacuation rate for the 230,000 people in
the rest of the county. The rate was
far higher than for any previous hurricane, and was attributed to the
storm's enormous size and power,
which by evening appeared likely to
spare the city. More than 90 percent
of neighboring Beaufort County was
empty, county officials said, and
6,300 people were reported to be in
shelters in the three-county metropolitan area.

With the storm's eye moving to the
north and east, residents of North
Carolina began adding to the exodus
today, filling up hotels as far away as
Alabama and Tennessee. The state
government ordered evacuations
from the barrier islands around Wilmington, and traffic began to clog
the area just as heavy rains began
falling at midday. President Clinton
declared coastal areas in the Carolinas to be disaster areas, adding them
to list of counties in Florida and
Georgia that were earlier made eligible for Federal money and relief.

"I know that Florida and Georgia
at this point feel like they've dodged
a real bullet," said Richard Moore,
the public safety secretary for North
Carolina. "This thing is not going to
miss us."

The storm disrupted travel along
the East Coast, as the Federal Aviation Administration shut down control tower operations on Wednesday at airports in Wilmington; Charleston;
Myrtle Beach, S.C., and the Florida
cities of West Palm Beach, Daytona
Beach and Jacksonville. Some airlines canceled flights as far away
from the storm as Richmond and
Charlotte, N.C.

In Virginia, more than 80 Navy
ships with an estimated 30,000 sailors, including three aircraft carriers,
took to sea on Wednesday from the Norfolk
Naval Base to escape the storm. The
exodus took all day. Also 180 Navy
and Air Force planes flew to inland
bases from the Oceana Naval Air
Station in Virginia Beach and Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Va.

Evacuation numbers were particularly high given the extreme difficulty many residents had in leaving
their homes on Tuesday, because of
the heavy congestion. South Carolina
waited until nightfall to make all
lanes of Interstate 26, the main highway from the coast, westbound away
from Charleston. Mayor Joseph P.
Riley Jr. of Charleston accused the
state of "staggering incompetence,"
and expressed concern that many
who tried to leave wound up returning, putting themselves in danger.

As the winds began to die down a
bit over Charleston at 10 P.M., Mayor
Riley said there appeared to have
been minimal damage, beyond
downed tree limbs and damaged
roofs. There were widespread power
failures, but the mayor said he expected most electric service to be
restored by Thursday.

Although Florida was spared the
heaviest winds of the hurricane,
which remained offshore as the
storm moved north, areas around
Daytona and Titusville reported numerous damaged roofs and power
lines. About 290,000 customers remained without electrical power as
many of the 1.3 million residents who
followed evacuation orders began returning home. A popular pier in Daytona collapsed, but the state insurance commissioner's office said
there was no major damage anywhere.

A 150-foot tugboat with eight crewmembers sank early on Wednesday about 345
miles off of Jacksonville. The Coast
Guard said that helicopters from the
aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy
rescued all eight crew members.

The track of the storm left open
the possibility that the hurricane's
strong winds and rain could continue
north past the Carolinas into Washington, New York City and even New
England by the weekend, even if the
storm is not a hurricane at that point.
Hurricane-force winds could reach
Chesapeake Bay by Thursday morning, and Federal emergency officials
predicted significant tree damage in
Washington.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency told governors this afternoon that flooding as far north as
New England remained a high possibility through the rest of the week.
Because so much of the mid-Atlantic
region is saturated from Hurricane
Dennis, state agencies remain on
high alert for inland river flooding.

An enormous swath of the East
Coast was virtually barren of visible
human life. Charleston's historic
downtown was boarded up and deserted, the only movement the ominous sway of trees and light poles. By
2 P.M., county police officers had
parked their cruisers and gone to
shelters, and ambulances stopped responding to any calls other than cardiac emergencies.

In Horry County, the resort of
Myrtle Beach had become an empty
stage set of abandoned hotels, seafood restaurants, waterslides and
miniature golf courses this afternoon
as the storm began to produce significant swells in the Atlantic. Roads
were empty and gas stations, grocery stores and diners were boarded
up and locked. One facade of an old
downtown building tumbled, and police officers struggled to secure the
exterior with plywood.

The usually animated beach town,
a popular golf and retirement destination, was projected to be near the
direct path of the hurricane during
the night, and officials were worried.

"We'll be in the path of some of the
strongest winds and largest storm
surges," said Cheryl J. Henry, a
county spokeswoman.

A curfew went into effect at 3 P.M.,
and similar restrictions were imposed on Charleston after dark.

Farther north, in Wilmington,
which has been affected by 16 hurricanes in the last decade, officials
began preparing for the serious
flooding that occurred in previous
storms like Bertha, Bonnie and Fran.
Life jackets were placed on all fire
trucks to assist in water rescues.
Having just gone through a weeklong
pounding from Hurricane Dennis,
North Carolina officials predicted ruinous beach erosion.

Considering that it has been only a
decade since Hurricane Hugo came
ashore in downtown Charleston, killing 13 people, producing a 17-foot
surge, and costing South Carolina
more than $6 billion, city officials
said they were amazed that the state
did not have a more effective evacuation plan for the coast.

Mayor Riley and other regional
mayors were furious that the State
Department of Transportation did
not immediately allow fleeing residents to use all lanes of I-26, as
Georgia officials did with I-16 out of
Savannah. Some Charleston residents were on the road for 10 or 12
hours just to reach other parts of the
small state.

Gov. Jim Hodges, who was blamed
by most angry radio-show callers for
the snail's pace of the evacuation,
said his transportation advisers
questioned the safety of reversing
lanes on the Interstate, but said he
finally overruled them about 8 P.M.
on Tuesday. Nonetheless, the issue
was likely to remain a political blow
for him -- one handmade sign on a I-26 overpass read, "Flog Hodges."